Airplanes
by Nik.EdwardIsLove
Summary: Why is Arthur Weasley so fascinated with Muggle technology? What is the reason for his secret ambition? Written for Childhood Memories Challenge on HPFC


**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR. **

**Written For Childhood Memories Challenge on HPFC**

**Prompt: Childhood love**

**Age: 11**

**Airplanes**

Arthur Weasley had just got his letter from Hogwarts. He was as excited as every magical boy at his age attending the legendary school was. He had heard of so many stories and mysteries of Hogwarts that he couldn't wait to start school. His father was taking him to Diagon Alley to get his school supplies; they were out of floo powder, hence were traveling through the muggle London. Having never set his foot in the muggle world this itself was a huge adventure to little Arthur Weasley. He was dressed in plaid shorts and a plain shirt, his father told him that this was what muggle boys of his age wore and it would be nice if they tried to fit with them during their visit.

"Dad! Let's go!" he said excitedly, waiting for his father by the door.

They were supposed to walk for a mile, take a carriage and then a train to London. Having traveled around the muggle world through muggle ways many times Mr. Weasley was quite at home at it. Where as it was just a field trip to Arthur, he goggled and oohed and aahed at every tiny muggle thing he could find. At first he was afraid to sit in the carriage which they had to take from his village but soon got over his fright when he started enjoying the bumpy ride.

Then they reached the train station; he was completely baffled by so many meters and counters at the station, and the huge board with numbers that kept changing, he couldn't imagine how the muggles managed their life. It was so _difficult!_ His father and he found seats for themselves on the train and readied themselves for the ride. Smiling gleefully, Arthur was glued to the window trying to capture as many things as possible in his mind.

If Arthur thought that the village and town on the way were fascinating it was _nothing_ compared to London! It was so crowded and busy! He could see men dressed in clothes similar to what his father was wearing for the occasion and women is dresses like _their_ robes and he saw very few little children but as his father had rightly said, they were too dressed in shorts and shirts. Though their shorts were mostly plain…he was simply engrossed!

"Its like magic!" he whispered to himself. His father smiled at how absorbed Arthur was into the muggle world, holding the boy's arm firmly in case he lost him, Mr. Weasley walked through the streets.

Wide-eyed and open-mouthed, the young boy watched his surroundings, here instead of carriages were weird looking _things _rolling on wheels with a wheel in the front and people sitting in it.

"Dad, what are _those_?" he questioned his father pointing to the path were the objects were rolling.

"Motor cars Arthur! Muggles use them for traveling purposes," his father replied with a beaming smile.

"Can they fly?" he asked.

"No, son," his father chuckled.

They continued to walk through many streets until his father suddenly stopped exclaiming, "Ah! Here it is!"

"What?" Arthur mumbled distractedly, looking at the tiny-grubby looking pub his father was pointing it.

"The Leaky Cauldron…muggles can't see the place," he whispered to Arthur. It did indeed look like the muggles couldn't see the place because they hardly looked in that direction or even if they did their eyes passed over too quickly.

"Let's go in," Mr. Weasley said dragging Arthur.

Suddenly there was a deafening roar from somewhere which stopped Arthur; he let out an unwilling gasp looking around searching for the disturbance hoping that his father had his wand ready to save him, and the people around them.

The noise was coming from the sky, he looked up. He could see an oddly shaped bird…was it a bird? He wasn't sure. His eyes widened in fear as the roar became much louder; in shock in realized that it was only him who seemed to have reacted drastically. The rest of the people were walking through the street as if it were a normal thing, hardly noticing it. His father was laughing.

"What _is_ that?" he asked in amazement.

"It's an airplane," his father answered.

"Is it a bird?" he questioned curiously.

"Ha, no…it's another type of transportation!"

"Wow…" Arthur muttered, and continued to stare at it until it became tinier and the noise died down.

"Come-on now, don't you want you shop your school supplies?" Mr. Weasley was amused at his son's interest. Any other boy would have pestered his father till they would have reached Diagon Alley but Arthur was stalling the visit by becoming more fascinated by the muggle world by every passing second.

"Yeah…" Arthur nodded vaguely, and they headed into the Leaky Cauldron after taking one last look at the sky hoping that the _airplane_ would fly through this part of the sky again.

"Dad…?" he started conversationally.

"Yeah?"

"_How do airplanes stay up?" _

**A/N: Well? How was it? In Half-blood prince we come to know that Arthur's dearest ambition is to know how airplanes stay up! :P So, yeah…I used that for inspiration. **

**The moment I saw childhood love and the age 11 the word "airplanes" crossed my mind immediately, I hope I did justice to this challenge and you enjoyed it. It was hard, trying to imagine a young Arthur Weasley. **

**Please do review!**


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